Roger’s Blog -Tanya Tagaq: a whole-body performance

Tanya post-interview with Roger

It’s difficult to describe Tanya Tagaq’s performance here at WOMADelaide 2011. It’s music, but not music as we know it; it’s performance, but beyond that; it’s evocation, it’s channelling, it’s sound sculpture.

In one piece lasting 55 minutes, Tanya took us into a landscape of ice-sheets, howling winds and wolves, dripping water, struggles, pain and joy. She howled, sank to her knees, bounced and shouted.

But mainly, she held us entranced and focused for all that 55 minutes. We shared the pain, we cringed at anger, we cried with her, we laughed. And the beats behind her, sampled from the ice-sheets of her environment, and the violin feeding tones and fragments, built a total soundscape.

OK – I’ve heard her on CD for years and maybe was partly ‘prepared’, but the reality exceeded the anticipation. Only two performances here at WOMAdelaide – but I’m back fro another dose – and other transportation – tonight.

-Roger